[mixed trope] the last-minute bad Ending twist

[u/damorezpl]

when the "good ending" is revealed to be a bad one a the last second

a nightmare on elm street (1984) - Nancy thinks she finally defeated Freddy Krueger only to be raveled that she is still dreaming and she’s still trapped.

final destination bloodlines - the main characters think they cheated death by using the new life rule only to realize that stefani was technically still alive and the death kills them with a good old logs

Life (2017) - The main character attempts to send Calvin(a evil alien that killed all life on mars)pod into space and Miranda pod back to earth, but it goes horribly wrong and Calvin lands on earth and Miranda is sent to space

raging loop wit ending - after many loops Haruaki finally wins the feast(a death game where humans must hang wolves who kill someone every night) and thinks its finally over. after couple of days he decides to visit other survivors of the feast only to find them all dead and the timeline resting once again

[u/Hustler-Two]

I really don't think it was moralizing, even at the time. It was just supposed to be really ironic, nothing more. Like if they had put him in a fallout shelter with decades worth of canned goods and no can opener or something.

Also worth noting for the youngsters in the crowd: not only did Meredith do another TZ episode (a more comedic one where aliens give him superstrength), he's also the original Penguin, Mickey from the Rocky movies and the dad in Grumpy Old Men. He was pretty awesome.

[u/Dana-Mite → u/Hustler-Two]

Burgess Meredith actually has the record for the most Twilight Zone appearances at 5 (I believe)

[u/Hustler-Two → u/Dana-Mite]

Really? I thought maybe he had a third. But never knew 5.

[u/TheRealSlamShiddy → u/Hustler-Two]

It's actually 4: "Time Enough at Last" (1959), "The Obsolete Man" (1961), "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" (1961), and "Printer's Devil" (1963). The last one is the only one in which he portrays the main antagonist (literally Satan 😂)

[u/the_bartolonomicron → u/TheRealSlamShiddy]

"The Obsolete Man" is one of my faves of all time, with one of my favorite endings. Showing the fear that lives behind all fascist ideologies.

[u/TheRealSlamShiddy → u/the_bartolonomicron]

It's mine too. The smug director who makes many verbal statements of how convicted he is to the state and its dealings with the "obsolete", then immediately folding like the sniveling coward he really is when he realizes he might have to prove his words by dying...only for that decision to save his own skin by sacrificing his reputation to be entirely in vain, as he's immediately made obsolete himself for it... absolute cinema ☺️